While the question seems innocent enough, don’t be lulled into a false sense of security that your interviewer wants to know your life’s history. It’s great that you might have golf in common, or belong to the same service organization. However, the true goal of this question is to find out how you fit the job.

The best way to handle this question is to be prepared. Do your homework — about the organization, the people you are meeting with as part of the interview process, the people who you might meet with in the interview process. Be informed — know who the president is, when the organization was founded, look up their latest press releases. Know the job description and requirements before you enter the room — and practice how your knowledge, skills and background meet the company’s need.

Do some investigation and figure out what problems this position needs to solve, how it fits in the overall structure of the company, and how that relates to what you’ve done before, or what skills you have are transferrible to meet the need.

Now take a deep breath — shoulders back, sit up straight, and tell me about yourself.

What was the toughest interview question you ever came across?

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Note on “How to Answer the 64 Toughest Interview Questions”:

I’ve tried to research the origin of this document — there are several copies of it floating around on the Internet. But to the best of my ability, I have yet to find who the originators or authors of this document are, and who might own the copyright. Suffice to say, it appears to be a document in the public domain.

That said, I have decided that it might be of value to go through the questions one by one and talk about possible answers and pitfall that await us in that all important interview. Over the coming weeks and months, you will find questions from this document discussed here on the job blog. I invite you to chime in with your experiences and lessons learned from the interview process.